Google overhauls Gmail

INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORKNov 8, 2007, 01.43pm IST

Google is making major structural code changes to Gmail and rolling them out slowly.

According to a blog by Elinor Mills on a popular tech site, the user interface changes are pretty subtle and many users might not even notice them. However, these code modifications likely presage more significant design and function improvements to come.

To tell if a user's account has been affected, a hyperlink at the top of the screen will say "older version" or "newer version," allowing him to choose which version to use.

Many users may have also noticed that the mail browsing has become faster. According to Mills this is due to the fact that Google pre-fetches messages in the current view, so when a user opens an e-mail his browser doesn't have to communicate with the server; it just displays the message instead.

Also, the contact manager interface has changed to present the contact data in an easier-to-read format. There are also some new keyboard shortcuts and now one can bookmark specific messages and e-mail searches.

One side effect of the coding changes, however, is that third-party Gmail extensions are likely to stop working.